[rant] Okay, Let’s Be Specific : The Marketing Tweetroversies: Part 2

If you haven’t read the first part, you may view this post in a different tone than it is intended. Please read Part 1 of the Marketing Tweetroveries first.

While we’re on the topic of social media, no, I’m not part of the team upset at Guy’s Twitter Twool post or the one on How to Pick Up Followers on Twitter. I’ve been asked about this several times, and not answered. Well, here’s my answer:

Guy and I have had a few conversations and I believe he’s a good guy who was just answering questions people asked him, honestly. Not that he needs me to defend him. He’s probably too busy to even realize there was a controversy over it. Again, people are asking my opinion, and I’m tired of answering the same question individually.

So here’s more of my opinion.

The articles he wrote are for people who are marketing to other people like them, who judge other people based on stuff like follower numbers and who they know. And the truth is, to the crowd he was talking about attracting, perception of those things matter. If you’re marketing to marketers, that’s what they look at.

I was a bit dismayed with the way the situation was handled by most folks on either side of the resulting feud on Twitter last week, especially since there was a much more important issue regarding truth and social media in the news that week that most people laughed about, then forgot about.

When this one came up, I kept largely silent on the matter for two reasons.

First, I was watching the prevailing perception that it’s somehow wrong to make money or to be interested in making money.

Now, as someone on the fringes of this crowd I don’t know if they were being tongue-in-cheek, or if they aren’t aware of how they come across and don’t mean it that way.

I can only say what it looked like to me from the outside looking in.

How I view it as someone who has been actively looking to link people who need freelance work to people who are hiring freelancers.

How I view it as someone who hires people who do what some of them do.

In either case, I appreciate them being authentic, but I’ll admit to being… saddened by what I see as a negative attitude towards wealth, or even financial stability. I just plain don’t think it’s wrong to have money, pursue wealth, or be in business for yourself.

Are there ethical ways to do it? Yes. Should those be the way we follow? Of course.

But the spirit of much of the ribbing, jesting and sometimes, flat-out meanness that I witnessed, wasn’t tinged with discussion of ethics. It read, intentionally or not, as an objection to capitalism, period.

In talking one on one to some people, I found that there was an anti-business attitude, even among freelancers. Not anti-bad-marketing. Anti-business.

Among a crowd made partially of freelancers and entrepreneurs.

No wonder so many folks are broke and the economy is a mess if we think the companies that serve us, hire us, or that we create, are evil just by virtue of wanting to make a profit.

That’s what business is, people. The world doesn’t run on cheese.

The other reason I hadn’t said anything while this was hot was that the timing coincided with the death of a really close friend. I’ll get into that more later in a post where I hope we’ll discuss how I’m doing and how you’re doing.

From what I saw, the fighting got a little vicious and there were some mean exchanges, as well as some unfortunate things said, and actions taken that have permanent consequences some may be deeply ashamed of later.

But I know how I react when I feel I’m being attacked, so I’m not judging anyone on either side. Not that anyone in the situation needs or desires my (dis)approval. This post isn’t for them, it’s for you.

Having said that, I also don’t think @ABigVictory, or her opinions about what Guy said regarding Twitter, should be “muzzled”, particularly after her update. I don’t even think that kind of thing is possible.

At the end of the day, whatever happened between her and Guy as a result is really between them.

Of course, I don’t think people who share her opinions should be called names either, the nicest of which would be “a social media elitist”, the worst I’ll tell you in a minute.

What I want to know first is; when did it become okay to call people names and accuse them of things we wouldn’t say if we weren’t eye to eye?

No matter how big or small a person’s business is, it’s wrong to try and disparage them over a difference of opinion, no matter how passionate you are about it. Even if they did something immoral or illegal there are avenues for that. I’m not against using your site as a platform to protest someone else’s actions.

Just let it be known that bickering is an immediate unsubscribe for me. I’ve been guilty of it myself, and I’ve learned from that, to the point that I won’t stay around to witness it amongst others.

The takeaway point of that is that I’m not alone.

As more people come to the realization that they control what they consume, how they spend their day, and the mood it puts them in, they’ll continue to refrain from participating in bickering – or witnessing it.

There are better ways to deal with a situation than calling people who have helped more people than either claims in public, a “douche” or a “bitch”.

Again, I’m in no position to judge, and I’m not specifically condemning anyone. But since you’re asking, yes, that’s my opinion. And yes, I’ve defended myself with name-calling before, yes in business settings.

And I’ve always regretted it. The best thing I’ve ever done for my business, my life even, is learn how to keep my temper under control.

As far as Twitter goes, and using it for business, I fall somewhere between the two of them. I think it’s fine to talk business on Twitter to people who have indicated that they want to talk business.

I believe that as long as I treat other people the way I would hope they’d treat me on Twitter, everything will be fine.

That includes letting me know that they’re someone I can outsource work to – I personally feel I shouldn’t have to hunt further than your profile to find out what you do and where to hire you. Or how to refer you to people.

Because you know what? I won’t. Most people won’t even go that far.

And since none of us owns Twitter, seems to me that everyone gets to have their opinion about what Twitter is about.

As long as we keep the realization that these are just Opinions – they are only rules to the people who agree with them, who group themselves into sub-communities within Twitter.

Next Twitter posts will be about how I help people’s businesses using Twitter, how Twitter helps me, and how Twitter can help your business Without doing traditional marketing.